Can I sell my house myself on Rightmove?

The only way this would cease to exist would be for the public to not drive as much traffic to their website and use other portals of choice, I doubt this would happen unless the public stopped using the internet because once a human being is accustomed to their ways then change is unlikely. For example, if you are an Apple or Android smartphone user, imagine the horror that strikes most when they have to use the countering device, it sends shrouds of fear throughout that person. It is the same with a Rightmove public user trying to use On the Market, yes, they can do it but the change is uncomfortable.

Therefore, agencies will always use where the public goes and this is the reason that Rightmove only sell their advertising to the agents. They make more money and they know that if the public use them, the agents will follow and although hugely expensive, they cannot afford NOT to use them.

In the days of old, agents would advertise in numerous places such as the newspaper, magazines, shop windows, windows of the newsagents and frankly anywhere they could be seen, whereas nowadays it is all online. There has been a mighty paradigm shift as to how the home selling business operates in the UK, Rightmove has the current monopoly.

This is not the only way anymore, even though the majority is still online, Social media and other forms are changing things again, but Rightmove and other online portals are still where the public goes to browse the UK’s property market.

Ok, I cannot advertise on Rightmove myself, but is there another way?

Yes, there is! Many online agents are using their sites as solely internet sites for property advertising. You would pay a minor fee to upload your own photos and advertise on the portals yourself such as Rightmove, you are not dealing with physical agents and everything is simply done online. The business model with these companies is that they pay the same subscription as anyone else to Rightmove but they seek out public advertising cheaply and in bulk, this enables you as the end user to list your property on Rightmove at a lower cost.

Examples of these are with companies such as:

Open Rent for Lettings – When you create your first lettings advert on OpenRent, we will review and publish it to the property listings on Rightmove, Zoopla, Primelocation and all major property portals.

Open Rent charges just £29 inc VAT for you to advertise your rental listing on Rightmove and Zoopla.

For Sales, there are companies such as Strike or Purplebricks.

Strike, for example, charges nothing to advertise your property on Rightmove, however, if you want professional photos or a video it could cost you £699 inc VAT, alternatively, they also offer a hosted viewing package from £799 inc VAT.

Purplebricks do a similar thing where you either pay an upfront cost or defer the payment for a number of months before paying them, at present, their costs are £1349 inc VAT, again a fraction of the cost from your typical estate agent.

Premium Listings and Featured Properties on Rightmove, do they make a difference?

Premium Listings:

Another thing that you may not have studied is the fact that many agencies have the ability in their Rightmove package to enhance your listing online and particularly Rightmove.

A Premium Listing display on Rightmove is a display of your property in the search results page and will enhance your property within the listings with a green banner underneath it.

Your property will grab more attention with a larger advert, with bigger images and more pictures on display.

You can also add a ‘Sticker Text’ which allows you to promote a key feature of the property.

Premium Listings are credits and 1 credit can be used for one property, and you can purchase these as one-off credits or monthly subscriptions, where your credits top up at the beginning of each month.

Rightmove state that a Premium Listing sticker can achieve your property 20% more views than a normal listing and at the moment cost £250 for an agent to purchase this.

What is a Featured Property?

A featured Property is displayed on Rightmove at the top of the search results page, with a blue banner.

Your property will also display again as a standard listing within the search results – which gives you twice the visibility!

This helps your property to be seen first and reach more buyers/renters.

There are two types of Featured Properties:

Featured Property of the Week – One credit can be used for one property, and it will remain featured for 1 week.

Featured property boxes – You can purchase one or multiple ‘boxes’ which you pay as a monthly subscription and can alternate which properties are featured.

A featured property achieves 50% more views and Rightmove advertises the additional cost of £500 to agents.

Using a High Street Agent

An alternative to the online agency model is by using the High Street traditional agent. I am not going to write about the difference between the high street agent vs the online model but there are comparisons and there is a separate blog on this subject.

High Street Estate Agents vs Online Agency

But make sure you conduct your research about the differences between the two, however, most high street agencies should have Rightmove, especially estate agents in Essex. Make sure that when hiring an agency to sell or rent your home you have an agency that advertises on Rightmove and find out what package you are obtaining with your listing.

Again, some agencies will not be pushing your property via the Premium Listing route or the Featured Property route. So, make sure that you explore this method with the agency that you hire.

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